Overbuff Recall - February 22, 2019

New [Something] Teased

On Thursday Blizzard teased… something! On Twitter we got a hint that suggesting Sombra has hacked her way into Talon’s network and accessed a communications record about someone named Captain D. Cuerva.

The record is a note from an analyst named Trung Le Nguyen who has recovered the personal log of Captain Cuerva. Cuerva’s strike team disappeared when they went after a Talon agent who was trying to leave the agency. This rogue agent, someone by the name of Jean-Baptiste Augustin, is mentioned to have been trained by Cuerva, is a good shot for a medic, can adapt to new situations easily, and seems to have ridiculous luck.

Up until now, Blizzard’s order for new content releases has alternated between teasing a hero, then a map, going back and forth. Since we just got the Paris map, it stands to reason that we’re about to get a new hero. That said, Overwatch Archives is about a month away, but it feels a bit early for teases about that event based on past experience.

Anatomy of an Overwatch Hero Tease

Players are already gathering information regarding what is known about Baptiste, but I’m going to have to agree with this redditor when it comes to new hero teases:

Hint 1: Very vaguely related to the actual hero, everyone picks the name they see most and say that is the hero. But it’s never right. (Emre, Effi, Rialto background for Hammond).

Hint 2: More clear, after a bit some reddit detective will figure it out.

Hint 3: Confirmation.

Paris and Patch Arrive

On Tuesday after the Year of the Pig went away, the latest patch rolled out that brought Paris, a change to health pools, and a number of bug fixes.

Paris

Paris is an Assault map (2cp) with the Point A overlooking what I can only assume is intended to be the Seine river, unless Future Paris makes some dramatic changes to its waterways, and in the distance one can see the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame. Point B is inside a mansion that is holding a gala to celebrate the passage of recent omnic rights legislation.

Around the map are a number of nods to Paris itself, Overwatch lore, and my favorite, playable pianos. My favorite is the Point A attacker spawn inside Cabaret Luna, where an omnic named Luna puts on a show.

You can read a tour guide from Blizzard here. Some are wondering if the last line of the guide, “The right word might get you into a place you never knew existed,” may have some meaning.

Health Pool Changes

Also in this patch are changes to how health pools are increased with bonuses. The easiest way to understand it is to know that now temporary health effects, such as Lucio’s Sound Barrier or Brigitte’s armor boosts, are the first to be removed when damage is taken.

For both temporary and built-in armor and shields, the order first takes away from shields, armor, then health.

Before the patch it was a similar order, but it was separated by health type instead of being if it the health was temporary or not, such as temporary shields, then built-in shields, temporary armor, then built-in armor, and so on.

Heroes these changes affect the most are those with built-in shields such as Zarya and Zenyatta. Before the patch, any temporary armor they received would be “after” their built-in shields, so those shields could hypothetically recharge before attackers could ever reach the armor. This is no longer the case.

This change to health pool priority also mentions something called temporary health, which doesn’t exist in the game yet, but could that change soon? Maybe it has to do with the new hero!

Other Changes

Players may now transfer hosts in custom games, meaning that if a change is needed or the leader drops out, the game is no longer scuffed and needs to be reformed.

There was another, undocumented, change to health as well. Before the patch, all heroes would give a gasp sound to their player that indicates their health is 75hp or lower. It’s now been changed so that heroes make this sound when they have one-third of their health remaining, meaning that heroes with larger health pools like Reinhardt and D.Va give this audio indicator at higher health amounts.

Esports

ELO Hell’s Tournament of Future Champions is returning at the end of March, with details coming soon.

Toronto Defiant’s academy team has been named Montreal Rebellion and have picked up a number of players. (Twitter) (Liquipedia)